There is a recognised need to store a tennis (or other sporting) net adjacent a tennis court, and also to lock it in a housing both for security reasons and to limit degradation due to weathering, etc. The closest art to the present invention which is known to the Applicant is the old U.S. Pat. No. 1,526,126 (Fitzherbert) but that patent did not disclose closure means, nor ratchet means which enabled the net to be tightened to the correct height after having been extended across a tennis court. The reader may also refer to Swedish Pat. No. 7710460-2 and French Pat. No. 2495944 for disclosure of different types of devices.